In this article, Capt.
Dale Dye, U.S.M.C.
As a sore loser in a towering snit, I did something a salty Marine sergeant should never do.
A pair of M551 light tanks from Troop “C”, 3rd Sqdn., 4th Cav., 25th Inf. Div., move into firing position during combat operations on Feb. 22, 1969. Image: SP4 Jacob E. Hawes/U.S. Army
I volunteered myself for assignment to any combat outfit that needed a warm body.
It would have been a fairly sweet deal if I knew anything about armor, which I didnt.
But the soldier advisors were happy to teach me.
The XM551, shown above, was a limited run of the new tanks in 1965. These pre-production tanks served as an important final test bed before M551 production began the following year. Image: DoD
Nothing on or about a big, motorized steel box on tracks is in any way lightweight.
Everything you touch wants to chew your knuckles, crush your fingers or cause arterial bleeding.
And there are few things on a track or tank that weight less than a ball-busting ton or better.
The Sheridan’s light weight made rapid deployment by air possible. In this photo, the tank is air-dropped by a C-130 Hercules aircraft using the Low-Altitude Parachute Extraction System. Image: NARA
Looking back beyond the pain, bruised knees and damaged ego, I recall most of it fondly.
And the M113 was not just an armored truck.
None of the advisors in our outfit had ever seen a Sheridan dropped by parachute.
An 82nd Airborne Division M551 light tank is driven from Army utility landing craft during Operation OCEAN VENTURE ’84. The M551 was also amphibious. Image: NARA
The Sheridans canister rounds were the money shots in Vietnam.
But there were some serious kinks in the firepower department that had to be addressed.
It was generally either hot and humid in Vietnam or chilly and wet.
Members of the 11th Armored Cavalry deploy from an M113A1 armored personnel carrier in support of a M551 Sheridan tank during a readiness exercise at the West German border in 1979. Image: NARA
Cartridges that were meant to detonate in the breech too often did so in the turret.
It was a little safer for the crew but still painfully slow.
Like itsM48 Patton tankbig brother, the Sheridan had fairly standard secondary armament.
M551 tanks of the 25th Inf. Div. maneuver through a wooded area near Cu Chi, Vietnam, to attack enemy positions. Image: SP4 Jacob E. Hawes/U.S. Army
About 4,000 rounds of machinegun ammo were carried into combat.
Reloads after firing all the ready MG rounds was a dangerous donkey drill under fire.
And those casualties were most often both the vehicle and the entire four-man crew.
The “pissed-off porcupine” M113A1 APCs on the move near Tam Ky, Vietnam in 1968. Image: U.S. Army
Only some 200 of the vehicles ever made it to the war zone.
Two members of the 82nd Airborne Division repair the left drive sprocket on an M551A1 Sheridan light tank following Operation Just Cause. Image: NARA
An M551A1 Sheridan tank from the 82nd Abn. Div. in Honduras. U.S. troops were mobilized to discourage Marxist Nicaraguan forces from invading the country. Image: Tech. Sgt.Bob Simmons/U.S.A.F.
The Shillelagh missile system is tested from a Sheridan prototype tank at the Redstone Arsenal in this photograph dated September 21, 1964. Image: U.S. Army
Alternative armaments were considered for the Sheridan. This production M551 is fitted with 76mm gun at the Rock Island Arsenal in March 1967. Image: NARA
U.S. soldiers of the Americal Division and their M551 on the move near Tam Ky, Vietnam on March 18, 1970. Image: NARA
This M551 sports an anti-RPG screen field modification. The photo of the 25th Inf. Div. tank was taken in Vietnam during December 1969. Image: NARA
U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemasters clear the drop zone after air-dropping U.S. Army M-551A1 Sheridan tanks and 204 paratroopers. Image: Sgt.Mike Reinhardt/U.S.A.F.
This M551 Sheridan light tank is driven onto a C-130 Hercules transport aircraft for deployment to Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield. Image: NARA
